Advice from those with less than great sleepers

[Deleted]

Not a big deal. Crappy sleeper before, crappy sleeper after. It did add the fact that he didn't stay in bed and spent a lot of time sleeping on the floor. He wanted to sleep in the bed (or the floor), though, so trying to put him in the crib was another fight I didn't want to have.

Signed,
Up more with the 3 year old than the 16 month old.

[Deleted]

The game changer was the OK to Wake clock. OMG, she is so good with the clock. I have it set to 6am and she does not come out from her room or make a peep until it turns green. She takes it VERY seriously.

ETA: If I had to pick better or worse with the bed itself, I'd pick better. But negligible.

[water*drop]

I'll let you know after we transition next week. I'm scared. I have very little hope that she will stay in bed.

[Deleted]

Dec 22, 2014 11:42:20 GMT -5 @starry said:

I am thinking we may go to IKEA tonight and let her test the beds

You are crazy.  I'm not entering a retail store until at least the 27th. 

[newmomnewjersey]

Dec 22, 2014 13:12:05 GMT -5 water*drop said:

I'll let you know after we transition next week. I'm scared. I have very little hope that she will stay in bed.

This, although I have no plan to transition in the near future. I'm trying to hold out as long as possible. She is a great overnight sleeper (naps suck, see earlier thread) and I don't want to mess with that. I'm afraid that when she realizes she has free reign over her room she'll be up playing.

[mlvmd]

The benefit of the bed for us was me not having to lie on the floor holding his hand or actually crawling into the crib-turned-toddler bed. I could just cuddle with him in the twin.

DS is finally a fairly decent sleeper at 5! Still wakes up at six every morning but falls asleep okay. i have such low expectations for "good sleep" in DS2.

[undecidedowl]

Dec 22, 2014 11:42:20 GMT -5 @starry said:

I am thinking we may go to IKEA tonight and let her test the beds

DS fell in love with an IKEA daybed. We bought it for his big boy room and he still loves it. Doesn't keep him in it though...

[gibbinator]

Made no difference for us. Except now instead of crying for us to get him if he wakes up motn he wanders into our room and stares at us as we sleep.

[Deleted]

Dec 22, 2014 14:19:34 GMT -5 @starry said:

Do you know how some medical ailments get explained as "unexplained"? I feel like that is DD's sleep problems. They are completely random and inconsistent. Generally goes down easily but sometimes wakes MOTN (sometimes not), or will wake up at 5:30am (sometimes not). Or she will sttn for five weeks then up daily for two weeks. Why.

Girl, there is no why.

Carry on. Do what is easier FOR YOU. Accept that it is unlikely that a magical switch will turn and your kid will suddenly sleep well every night. As time passes, they need us less at night, and that's as good as it gets. DS is better now than he was - he's gotten a lot better in the last 6 months. He's still sleeping on the floor in my room a few nights a week, though (and that's after we kicked him out of our bed, where he really would still rather be).

They will, someday, be their own damn problem and can go get some Lunesta from their doctor and ask them WHY they're such shitty sleepers.

In good news, my baby #2 is an amazing sleeper. I hope you've also paid your shitty sleeper dues.

[brady2012]

Yes, it actually made a huge difference for our daughter. We moved her to a twin at 20-21 months and she started sleeping fairly consistently through the night. I think she hated the crib mattress. She used to slam her legs down all night long trying to get comfortable. We put her in the bed and the very first night she slept straight through. I even was able to go in and take a photo of her knocked out in the bed.

She was a terrible sleeper, we had to retrain her ever other week basically and that still meant we were up 2-3 times a night (verses 5-6). The holding, the rocking, the trying to lower her into the crib without waking her...hoping not to hit a creaky floorboard on the way out.

It took her a year to learn she could get out of the twin on her own and now occasionally she will be standing over my husband and he will freak the eff out. But on the whole, so much better. And now she is starting to drop her nap and she is sleeping like a rock for 12-13 hours a night.

[barefootcontessa]

Starry -- my third son was a very difficult sleeper until he was just about two. Since then he has been great. There is hope!

[matildasun]

I can't decide whether or not to tell you to leave her in the crib forever or to put her in a bed. They both have pros and cons.

[h]

It got better for us when we switched DS1 and DS2 because we could more easily lay down with them until they fell asleep, and if they woke up MOTN, they could just come crawl into bed with us without us even waking up rather than screaming their heads off. It did not actually decrease the time that it took them to fall asleep of the number of MOTN wakings, but it did make an untenable situation better for DH and me.

I suspect maybe that doesn't help, as I hear some people want their kid to, you know, actually sleep.

[matildasun]

@starry, I love it. We have similar conversations with A.

They always end with "But I love to snuggle you. I can sleep by myself when I am old. "